Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Part 3: Seen @ Penang Toy Museum: Star Wars

A toy museum is not complete without Star Wars toys. In a revolutionary approach to Hollywood film-making and merchandising, George Lucas had wisely accepted only $175,000 as his writer's / director's fee in return for the much more lucrative forty percent of merchandising rights for his Star Wars Corporation. The first six "Star Wars" films grossed about $1.9 billion (domestic) and about $4.2 billion (worldwide) at the box office, while taking in at least double that amount from merchandise sales. Merchandising associated with the films encouraged an entire marketing industry of Star Wars-related items (i.e. toys, video games, novelty items at fast food restaurants, etc.)

With the success of the Star Wars films and its merchandising efforts, Star Wars toys have made a huge impact on the toy scene and many toy collectors have amassed lots of Star Wars movie merchandise over the years. The Penang Toy Museum, billed as the "World's Largest Toy Museum" was no exception. There were shelves upon shelves upon shelves of Star Wars toys and I've decided to post the pictures here so that you don't have to visit the museum to see what's there. I'm bringing the museum to you and this is my third part coverage of what's to see at the Penang Toy Museum and this post is dedicated entirely to Star Wars, of which I'm a big fan as well :) So sit back, relax and scroll down to see the pictures (there are almost 40 pictures in all!)

Check out the Yoda statue as he was seen in Star Wars Episodes I to III, when he was still young and active. Small but dynamite, like chilli padi :) From the picture above, you can tell how the racks at the Penang Toy Museum are constructed. Very basic structures and not really museum style displays. The front of the racks are covered by a large one-piece acrylic / perspex which is held to the shelves via screws at the sides. It doesn't really seal properly and dust (lots of it) has gathered over the years and marred what would have been a rather pleasant display.

And here's old Yoda as seen in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. He's displayed in a larger unit with lots of Hasbro Star Wars 3 3/4 inch action figures. The sad thing is, the figures have almost all toppled over but the owner does not even bother to pick them up and re-pose them. Just sits outside the museum building and collects the RM20 entrance fee from visitors :(

Here you can see the Imperial Forces' AT-AT Walkers, AT-ST Scout Walkers and Shuttle all displayed together. It would definitely have looked more impressive if all the troopers were standing up instead of falling all over themselves.

More of the same fallen Stormtroopers and Rebel soldiers. What a sad sight! Toy museum or toy graveyard? You tell me.

There are also some rebel alliance snowspeeders thrown in as well.

It's all a mishmash of vehicles put together into one single display unit with everything having fallen over or toppled. Shame to see toys in this state :(

And here's a Darth Vader statue towering over the Star Wars 3.75-inch action figures, with some Star Wars Commemorative Coins thrown in there as well

In another display shelf, there's this Darth Vader bust. It shows Vader with his mask removed, revealing the older Skywalker as seen in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. See how the dust has gathered over some of the display cases and obscuring our view of the item displayed inside the case. I believe that's Darth Vader's light saber which is hidden from view.

There's also a larger than life statue of Anakin Skywalker in his podrace getup as seen in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. A fallen Battle Droid lies on his right.

I've made the pictures that follow rather LARGE so that you can get a better view of all the figures displayed inside the shelves when you click on them. Wouldn't want you to have to squint to see the pictures and what's in them :)

It's all a mishmash in most of the shelves, without a proper theme or time line. They are not even categorized under any particular order or by movie. Here you can see a Yoda bust, some Yoda figures, old Ben Kenobi and Episode II & III clone troopers.

Here's a Star Wars Episode I chess set displayed together with the Hasbro Star Wars 12-inch figures from way back. Also displayed are the Star Wars Masterpiece Edition series boxed sets which combined a hardcover reference book and an 12" exclusive collector figure made by Hasbro.. Pity the owner did not even bother to display the figures.

More 1/6 scale Star Wars 12-inch action figures. This scene is supposed to be from the third installment of the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi. The first act of Return of the Jedi features the attempts of Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), the Wookiee Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to rescue their friend, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who had been imprisoned in carbonite in the events of the previous film, The Empire Strikes Back.

And then there's a shelf with the toy creatures and other toy vehicles seen in the Star Wars films, including the nomadic Sand People, the Tusken Raiders riding their banthas, Sandtroopers on their Dewbacks, Jawas with their Sandcrawlers, Luke and Ben in their Landspeeder and Jawas on their Rontos.

More Jabba the Hut action figures. These are all scaled to fit in with the 3.75-inch tall human figures. A smaller diorama of the first scene in Return of the Jedi is attempted.

The Battle of Grassy Plains was the climactic battle of the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY. Fought between the Gungan Grand Army and the Trade Federation, it was often called the Battle of Naboo. Fambaa with shield genertaor and Gungan warrior, Gungan warriors riding kaadu wage war with battle droids riding STAPs (Single Trooper Aerial Platform).

Star Wars Micro Machines Playsets. Micro Machines were tiny scale component style "playsets" and vehicles that were slightly larger than N scale - a popular model railway scale / track gauge. Depending upon the manufacturer (or country), the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. The heads would open up into a scene from Star Wars with mini figures and vehicles. For example, R2-D2 opens to reveal Jabba's palace and C-3PO showcases the Cantina scene.

More Star Wars 3 3/4 inch action figures with the Stormtroopers all fallen over

Old man Obi-Wan standing next to his younger version, ARC-170 Fighter with a new paint job, All-Terrain Recon Transports (AT-RTs) which is a precursor to the AT-ST Chicken Walker, and Han Solo in Carbonite

Hasbro 1/6 scale Dewbacks with Sandtroopers. Ugly beasts with even uglier riders. These Hasbro Sandtroopers need to lose some weight. They are FAT!

Hasbro experimented with a new scale of figures that were bigger than the regular 3.75-inch tall action figures but smaller than 12-inch figures. They were the Star Wars Force Battlers but it didn't quite take off here

Even more Star Wars toy figures, vehicles and playsets, including the Micro Machines Death Star Playset.

ARC-170 Fighter, Republic Gunships and many, many fallen figures. Pick them up and put them back, for goodness sake!

You cannot have a Star Wars collection and not have the Millennium Falcon although the model featured is a rather old version. The ULTIMATE Millennium Falcon would have to be the Hasbro Star Wars Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon which can be seen HERE in my earlier post :)

Despite the dust and toppling figures, this was really a blast to look through. I really like the way the displays often have themes but don't necessarily adhere to keeping everything in the same scale, etc. Thanks for posting all these photos, Alex.

It might be the largest toy collection in the world, but it certainly is not the most well displayed.

Having a lot of Star Wars memorabilia is one thing;jumbling them up together in terms of original trilogies & prequel trilogies is just downright lazy...I mean if you have to just throw them in the display case like that, at LEAST you can do is pile them genealogically....

I planned to go over myself, but after seeing your posts, I might just skip it to avoid further heartache...Thanx Alex for sharing. (Two thumbs up for effort)

Death is a natural part of life, but what happens when it goes rogue? In the not so far off future, the battle between the forces of good ...

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